the lady and the mill girl: changes in the status of women in the age of jackson

Abstract

the lady and the mill girl: changes in the status of women in the age of jackson gerda lernerThe period 1800-1840 is one in which decisive changes occurred in the status of American women.It has remained surprisingly unexplored.With the exception of a recent, unpublished dissertation by Keith Melder and the distinctive work of Elisabeth Dexter, there is a dearth of descriptive material and an almost total absence of interpretation. 1 Yet the period offers essential clues to an understanding of later institutional developments, particularly the shape and nature of the women's rights movement.This analysis will consider the economic, political and social status of women and examine the changes in each area.It will also attempt an interpretation of the ideological shifts which occurred in American society concerning the "proper" role for women.Periodization always offers difficulties.It seemed useful here, for purposes of comparison, to group women's status before 1800 roughly under the "colonial" heading and ignore the transitional and possibly atypical shifts which occurred during the American Revolution and the early period of nationhood.Also, regional differences were largely ignored.The South was left out of consideration entirely because its industrial development occurred later.The status of colonial women has been well studied and described and can briefly be summarized for comparison with the later period.Throughout the colonial period there was a marked shortage of women, which varied with the regions and always was greatest in the frontier areas. 2 This (from the point of view of women) favorable sex ratio enhanced their status and position.The Puritan world view regarded idleness as sin; life in an underdeveloped country made it absolutely necessary that each member of the community perform an economic function.Thus work for women, married or single, was not only approved, it was regarded as a civic duty.Puritan town councils expected single girls,